The Class 03

steam engines A steam engine is a heat engine that performs mechanical work using steam as its working fluid. The steam engine uses the force produced by steam pressure to push a piston back and forth inside a cylinder. This pushing force can be tr ...

were standard

express train An express train is a type of passenger train that makes a small number of stops between its origin and destination stations, usually major destinations, allowing faster service than local trains that stop at most or all of the stations along ...

locomotives ('' Einheitslokomotiven'') in service with the

Deutsche Reichsbahn The ''Deutsche Reichsbahn'', also known as the German National Railway, the German State Railway, German Reich Railway, and the German Imperial Railway, was the German national railway system created after the end of World War I from the regi ...

History

The Class 03 engines were built between 1930 and 1938 as express train locomotives for routes that were only suitable for

axle loads An axle or axletree is a central shaft for a rotating wheel or gear. On wheeled vehicles, the axle may be fixed to the wheels, rotating with them, or fixed to the vehicle, with the wheels rotating around the axle. In the former case, bearing ...

of up to 18 tonnes. 298 examples of this engine, whose construction was based on the Class 01, were built by the firms of Borsig,

Krupp The Krupp family (see pronunciation), a prominent 400-year-old German dynasty from Essen, is notable for its production of steel, artillery, ammunition and other armaments. The family business, known as Friedrich Krupp AG (Friedrich Krupp ...

Henschel Henschel & Son (german: Henschel und Sohn) was a German company, located in Kassel, best known during the 20th century as a maker of transportation equipment, including locomotives, trucks, buses and trolleybuses, and armoured fighting vehicl ...

, and Schwartzkopff. Its reduced weight was achieved by the use of a light sectional frame, smaller

boiler A boiler is a closed vessel in which fluid (generally water) is heated. The fluid does not necessarily boil. The heated or vaporized fluid exits the boiler for use in various processes or heating applications, including water heating, centr ...

and smaller

cylinders A cylinder (from ) has traditionally been a three-dimensional solid, one of the most basic of curvilinear geometric shapes. In elementary geometry, it is considered a prism with a circle as its base. A cylinder may also be defined as an infini ...

. From engine number 03 123 onwards the pumps were located in the centre of the locomotive and from number 03 163 the locos had larger

leading wheels The leading wheel or leading axle or pilot wheel of a steam locomotive is an unpowered wheel or axle located in front of the driving wheels. The axle or axles of the leading wheels are normally located on a leading truck. Leading wheels are used ...

. Locomotive number 03 154 was equipped with a parabolic

smokebox A smokebox is one of the major basic parts of a steam locomotive exhaust system. Smoke and hot gases pass from the firebox through tubes where they pass heat to the surrounding water in the boiler. The smoke then enters the smokebox, and is ...

door, a tapered driver's cab and driving gear cover plates. Number 03 193 was given a wine-red, streamlined, full covering and a 2′3 T 37 St tender, in order to replace the Class 05. 03 204 and 03 205 had driving gear cover plates for experimental purposes. Locomotive numbers 03 175 and 03 207 had Lentz valve gear, also as an experiment. Until 1959, 145 Class 03 locomotives were in the

Deutsche Bundesbahn The Deutsche Bundesbahn or DB (German Federal Railway) was formed as the state railway of the newly established Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) on 7 September 1949 as a successor of the Deutsche Reichsbahn-Gesellschaft (DRG). The DB remaine ...

's operating fleet, of which 62 engines (03 005 to 03 122) had air and

feed pump A boiler feedwater pump is a specific type of pump used to pump feedwater into a steam boiler. The water may be freshly supplied or returning condensate produced as a result of the condensation of the steam produced by the boiler. These pumps are ...

s on the

, small

(850 mm diameter) and a top speed of 120 km/h, 16 machines (03 127 to 03 160) had air and feed pumps between the middle and rear driving wheels, small leading wheels (850 mm diameter) and a top speed of 120 km/h and 67 engines (03 164 to 03 296) had air and feed pumps between the middle and rear driving wheels, scissor-block brakes (''Scherenklotzbremsen''), large leading wheels (1,000 mm diameter) and a top speed of 130 km/h. In 1968 there were still 45 units, now designated as Class 003, remaining in the operational fleet. They were stabled at the following locomotive sheds: two at the

Braunschweig Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( , from Low German ''Brunswiek'' , Braunschweig dialect: ''Bronswiek'') is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the ...

shed, six at Bremen Main Station, 13 at

Hamburg-Altona Altona (), also called Hamburg-Altona, is the westernmost urban borough (''Bezirk'') of the German city state of Hamburg, on the right bank of the Elbe river. From 1640 to 1864, Altona was under the administration of the Danish monarchy. Alto ...

, one at

Husum Husum (, frr, Hüsem) is the capital of the ''Kreis'' (district) Nordfriesland in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. The town was the birthplace of the novelist Theodor Storm, who coined the epithet "the grey town by the sea". It is also the home of ...

, 16 in

Mönchengladbach Mönchengladbach (, li, Jlabbach ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located west of the Rhine, halfway between Düsseldorf and the Dutch border. Geography Municipal subdivisions Since 2009, the territory of Mönchengladba ...

and seven at Ulm. The last ten locomotives of Class 003 were on duty from 1971 at Ulm; in 1972 the last ones, nos. 003 088, 003 131 and 003 268, were withdrawn from service. The DR in

East Germany East Germany, officially the German Democratic Republic (GDR; german: Deutsche Demokratische Republik, , DDR, ), was a country that existed from its creation on 7 October 1949 until its dissolution on 3 October 1990. In these years the state ...

had 86 engines in its fleet. From 1962 they equipped their vehicles with mixer preheaters. Pm2 pacific locomotive 1976

35 03 pacifics went to Poland after World War 2, along with ten streamlined 03.10s. The Polish version of the Class 03, the Pm2 (running number 34), can be seen at the railway museum in Warsaw. The locomotives of this class had 2′2 T 30, 2′2′ T 32 and 2′2′ T 34 tenders.

Literature

* * * * * * {{DRG locomotives 03 4-6-2 locomotives 03 Borsig locomotives Krupp locomotives Henschel locomotives Railway locomotives introduced in 1930 Berliner locomotives Standard gauge locomotives of Germany Standard gauge locomotives of Poland 2′C1′ h2 locomotives Passenger locomotives

History

See also

Literature